A Life in the Life of Okechukwu

Monthly Archives: September 2014

What a year. From March to September, the days have grown wings and flown past. A side effect of getting older I guess. What a year so far. Many Ups, just as many Downs, and all the lessons that go with it. Reached my 30th year and I feel like I’ve acquired the dark wisdom that comes along with it. lol.

Nah, Its been an interesting year so far. Fell in love. Lost that love. Learned alot about myself (not all of it good). Took someone to court. Made it out of court with some bruises but not broken. Went to San francisco and Vegas to celebrate the passing of my born-day. Rode an emotional roller-coaster that is not quite out of commission and probably still has some twists and turns left in it.

One thing that I did want to memorialize was a thought that has been with me all this week. Its been stimulated by a sermon series by Andy Stanley “in the meantime” (http://northpoint.org/messages/in-the-meantime/the-new-normal/). This sermon series seemed to hit me right at a particular juncture of my life where I needed it. A bible verse that I came across in my daily readings seems to agree with the sentiment expressed in the sermon series. Curious? Thought you might be. First the verses:

“Then Isaiah spoke to Hezekiah, ‘Listen to what God has to say about this: The day is coming when everything you own and everything your ancestors have passed down to you, right down to the last cup and saucer, will be cleaned out of here – plundered and packed off to Babylon…Worse yet, your sons, the progeny of sons you’ve begotten, will end up as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘If God says it, it must be good.’ But he was thinking to himself, ‘It wont happen during my lifetime – i’ll enjoy peace and security as long as I live.”

When I first read this, Hezekiah’s response was a little off to me. Ok. Alot off. I still puzzle over the latter part of his response. lol. But the first part is what was rolling around in my head all week. “If God says it, it must be good.” I was like “YO! Hezi! You listening man? Isaiah just said your sons will be eunuchs! Eunuchs! That’s not positive. You don’t wanna throw up some prayers and ask God to avert this disaster?” …no? You trippin.

But upon more reflection and looking at the last year – I realized that it was a mature way to look at the inevitable bad news that WILL confront us at some time during our time here on earth. If we settle in to the fact that EVERYTHING that confronts us – good and bad – was sent by God, then it allows us to, instead of fighting against the (seemingly) negative situations that arise, to accept them, and search diligently for the good inside of them. In the words of Rahm Emanuel “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

Quick story then I’ll let you go.

The joke concerns twin boys of five or six. Worried that the boys had developed extreme personalities — one was a total pessimist, the other a total optimist — their parents took them to a psychiatrist.

First the psychiatrist treated the pessimist. Trying to brighten his outlook, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with brand-new toys. But instead of yelping with delight, the little boy burst into tears. “What’s the matter?” the psychiatrist asked, baffled. “Don’t you want to play with any of the toys?” “Yes,” the little boy bawled, “but if I did I’d only break them.”

Next the psychiatrist treated the optimist. Trying to dampen his out look, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with horse manure. But instead of wrinkling his nose in disgust, the optimist emitted just the yelp of delight the psychiatrist had been hoping to hear from his brother, the pessimist. Then he clambered to the top of the pile, dropped to his knees, and began gleefully digging out scoop after scoop with his bare hands. “What do you think you’re doing?” the psychiatrist asked, just as baffled by the optimist as he had been by the pessimist. “With all this manure,” the little boy replied, beaming, “there must be a pony in here somewhere!”

I think in the business of living we each have a choice. That choice mainly concerns how we’re going to look at the situations that come our way. Its a choice to choose hope. To choose joy. To choose to keep putting one foot in front of the other, even when the path ahead doesn’t look much better than any place behind us.